Our family was never told of our father’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis. In fact, fewer than 50% of people with Alzheimer’s report being told of their diagnosis. Timely diagnosis, disclosure and care planning are essential for the well-being of patients and their families, reducing avoidable ER visits and hospitalizations, giving opportunities for crucial conversations with family and loved ones, and allowing for management of multiple chronic health conditions, while giving families time to plan for the caregiving and financial challenges ahead.
The Alzheimer’s Association-sponsored bill, Senate Bill 48 (Limon), has passed out of the Assembly Health Committee. Governor Newsom’s Home and Community Based Services Spending Plan includes one-time funding of $25 million for “Dementia Aware.” It now moves to Assembly Appropriations, which reviews all bills with fiscal impacts.
SB 48 will create a physician incentive program for cognitive health assessments for Medi-Cal recipients 65 years and older and fills a gap for individuals on Medi-Cal who do not receive Medicare, A new dementia-specific training for physicians seeking this incentive will be developed. SB 48 will implement recommendations of two major state initiatives addressing the needs of California’s aging population: the Alzheimer’s Task Force call on California to “Model a Statewide Standard of Dementia Care to the Nation” and the CA Master Plan on Aging.
I call upon the Assembly Appropriations Chair Lorena Gonzalez and members to support SB 48 (Limon). Thank you to state Sen. Josh Becker for his previous support. I hope that he will continue to support SB 48.
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Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.